Competition is tomorrow! I’m nervous. I practiced my three minute speech again, and it has really came together. I finished up my inventor’s log so I could print it and put in my binder. I also put some more pictures on my website, and finished up my slide show. We have a few other things to do like pack my bags and get everything together for tomorrow. YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!! Let’s do this!
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Today I wrote down what my basic talking points were, then I practiced what I would say about them. I spent a couple of hours on this, and my grandparents even came out to listen to me. I’m getting the hang of what I can say in three minutes, and I think it sounds good. The patent information also came today, so I will be able to take these books with me to competition.
After presenting to O’Hara Hardware on the 9th I can finally finish my board. Since the Ottumwa Courier had been there, there was an article in the newspaper and on the Ottumwa schools website. I printed off the article from the website then cut out the article from the newspaper. Then I glued everything onto my board, the last thing I had to do was figure out what I would say during my three minutes with the judges. Today my mom got an email back from Jim Johnson. Hopefully, I will be able to meet with him soon. He provided us with some information about how much an aluminum mold would cost ($10,000) and that when manufactured each snowball maker would cost between $2.00 and $4.00. That’s awesome!
Today my mom and I posted on her Facebook page asking if anyone knew anything about plastic injection molding. My parents explained to me that if anyone were to manufacture my invention it would have to be made in plastic so it wouldn’t be as heavy. A friend of my mom’s gave us the email address of a man by the name of Jim Johnson. He has 44 years of experience in injection molding, so hopefully he will be able to give us some details about how this would work and what it would cost for my invention to be manufactured.
Today I decided to put together a packet of information to hand to the judges. In my binder I will include all the information that is on my board, pictures, the copies of the patents I found, and my inventor’s log. I decided to do this because this is what we did at our FLL competitions. I also received an email from my Lego teacher today, and she suggested we file a patent for my invention. So my mom called the USPTO office and talked to a man on the phone. He told her the difference between a utility, design, and a provisional patent. He is also mailing us some information. The utility and design patents are expensive, but the provisional one is only $70 and that gives me a year to figure out if I want to go further with my patent. I think we will do this at some point.
Today I presented to the owner of O’Hara Hardware, I was nervous at first but when I started talking I was fine. She asked questions like ‘what was your hardest challenge during this project?’ So I answered all of her questions and thanked her for letting me share my invention. The Ottumwa Courier was also there to cover the story and take pictures. He seemed very excited to write an article about me! Now I am ready to go to State!!!!
Now I just need to glue EVERYTHING down. My mom helped me put glue on the pictures, we started on one side then went across the board to the other. But we stopped on the farthest side because I hadn’t presented to O’Hara Hardware. The letters, pictures, diagrams, and everything else were glued. Now I am ready for my presentation tomorrow!
I decided that I would add captions to my pictures so the judges new what was happening, I didn’t want my board to look too busy, but at the same time I wanted it to POP!!!!!!!!! So after getting my pictures, captions, my title, paragraphs, quotes, and even the snowflakes I added on, my board was finally all laid out, now all I had to do was glue everything down. But I also had my presentation to O’Hara Hardware on Monday, so I left space in the corner for some pictures.
My mom and I went and picked up pictures from Walgreens that would go on my new board. I also had all of my descriptive paragraphs done with the red background behind them. I had everything laid out but Kendra came out with her Cricket to cut out the words for my title. Once those were cut out I had to find a way I liked them on the board. That meant I had to switch around a few things, but it all worked out!! Oh, and my business cards arrived today. THEY ARE AWESOME!!!
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April 2018
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